Ever since I watched Meera and Sree perform a production specially made for a festival, i have been very excited about this idea and the initiative of Malavika Sarukkai and have been eagerly looking forward to the Kalavahini festival. It is heartening to see the the festival grow in brilliance and stature year on year. This year,i felt the festival kind of reached its zenith with people starting to feel it a matter of pride to be showcased on this platform. The onus is now bigger on Malavika's shoulder to keep the spirit intact and soaring higher.
The idea of identifying young talent and awarding a fellowship to them and helping them tend to a dance idea and see it grow into a production is fantastic and forms the core of this festival. This year we saw fellowship awardees Sarveshan ( jr category) and Sreelakshmi ( Senior cat.) present their works.
Sarveshan had hit upon a gold mine in devi purana in the story of Kailasha Krishna. Just The brilliance of the idea was good enough to keep anyone hooked. The story is so rich in beautiful episodes each of which could be expanded into a full scale performance. Be it the imagery of Shiva and Parvathi captured in a moment of bliss, or the idea of Shiva desiring to take the woman's form to experience pleasure from the otherside of being a woman, any of them could form the seed of a full scale performance in itself. Sarveshan chose to expand on Parvathi's desire to be born as Krishna, in response to Shiva's desire.
A lot of time, however, was lost in setting the context of the Kailasa and the ecstatic moment of the divine couple, and consequently, the expansion of Parvati's desire seemed to have been rushed through. i wish Sarveshan could give it more thought and application to expand on the latter part. Some liberties to go beyond the original could be taken to delineate each aspect of the desire.. for instance it occured to me that Parvathi could be said to desire the dark blue skin colour of Krishna, so that she could be constantly close to Neela kandan, she could be said to desire to grow in a yadava clan so that she would not be far from their vahana the rihaba, she could be said to appease Muruga by including a peacock feather on herself as Krishna...
Sarvehsan's training in Kalari showed in his performance. I also wonder if he has also trained in Kathakali, for the eyes were performing at an exuberant level.
I had may be put too much expectations on Sreelakshmi's performance that i came out a bit disappointed. i felt she was trying to bring too many things into the performance and for me all of it didn't quite come together well. and it feels too preachy to talk about environment through dance. and too much gloom in a dance performance does not go well with me. the music and lighting for her work looked brilliant.
I was eagerly looking forward to watch Mavin Khoo perform- one because I had been hearing much about him and his name and foreign origin pinches ones curiosity. Mavin did not disappoint and i walked out of the show greatly satisfied.
While watching the performance, i was keenly aware of myself constantly judging Mavin for what he was doing on stage. Mavin can be difficult to absorb for some and can be too good to take your eyes off for others. what look like some of his antics on stage can be off putting for some. if one can get over this reservation and take it in as his characterization one is bound to enjoy his dance better. just during the course of this performance, my opinion often went to the verge dismissing his performance as just another comic stunt, when he would do something to suddenly overwhelm me and after a point i got completely absorbed, and sheer bliss afterwards, discovering layers of his personality and performance.
Watching Mavin, one felt BN had been cast into fresh new die. Every movement seemed to be fresh and different- he either manages to add a small physical twist to a regular movement or has created a entirely new visual vocabulary. While there were few moments when he reminded me of Bragah Bessel, otherwise he scripted something visually fresh and unique. We are probably witness to Mavin creating a Bani of his own.
There was a time when i suggested to a dancer that while dancing for 'karpuram naarumo, kamala poo narumo' it would pay to be meditating on the lips, rather than gesturing the camphor and the lotus. i think i saw Mavin performing at this level. He did not aspire to bring every syllable to abhinaya, instead he would just let his dancing body take in the lines and probably let his cells and muscles emote to those lines.
There were times when you felt like watching John cage's 4'33''. Mavin constantly challenges the viewer to refresh his/ her visual cache. Mavin has probably introduced 'vilambith or the 'super vilambith' in dance.
Mavin seemed to be taking the idea of slowing it down and then throttling it up suddenly to a new high and i think we are going to see many dancers take to this style at different scales.
The idea of mixing 'Neerajakshi' and 'varuvaai ena' was brilliant and innovative. The vocalist fluently changed registers in setting the mood for the performance.
i wish Mavin had not ended the performance on a negative note, leaving the heroine still yearning for her lord. after showing a blissful ecstatic union earier on the middle of the piece, Mavin could have ended the performance with the heroine waking up to discover marks of the lord having visited her and left.
My respect, admiration and expectations off Karuna Sagari had gone notches higher after watching Tiruchendur at the NGS festival. at first she looked like a very small and different version of the splendor that she was while performing skandam. However she grew in stature over the course of the performance to reveal a new dimension.
The Sundarar thevaram did not work for me, for one, it did not sound familiar to me, nor did it carry the trademark sweetness and other features we would expect of a Sundarar thevaram. The segments where the lord and the goddess dance in alternation was brilliant. it would be interesting to see this segment as a duet.
while the varnam piece did not give much scope for making a difference, KS aced it all in the Nattrinai piece. her explanation for the piece was a brilliant performance in itself.
KS expounded upon this poem in a brief introduction that was very foreceful and amply set the tempo for an even more power packed performance
Just the choice to perform this song was very powerful, as it demonstrates the power and strength of a woman to say no to a man and does so with great clarity and forthrightness. And this coming from a tamil woman from two thousand years ago, should be inspiring to girls of today. I am thinking of how this piece worked for me , while Sreelakshmi's , again a socially conscious and responsible piece, sounded preachy to me.
KS signed off her performance in a magical pose of a soaring swan, beautifully augmented by the soaring voice of Subhiksha and the blue lighting.
i had first come across Girish Karnad's Naga mandala as a play staged at the theru k koothu festival 2022 at Purisai, superbly performed by Kumaraguru drama troupe, ably directed by Arivazhagan.
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| accessed from fb post of Gurusaravanan Manoharan |
I would never have imagined that it could be made into a dance performance. Punyah dance company simply aced it and made delectable feast of dance, music and design. at times they had the audience peck out of their hands, they carried the script with so much grace and elan and topped it up with their individual brilliance to give us a scintillating premiere of their production.
It was fascinating to see how much talent and effort had gone into the aspects of music, lyrics, light design and kudos to Parshwanath for bringing all these talents together . Their decision to do away with dialogues and convey the story line only through gestures was brilliant. The idea of dancers flipping between being the story tellers and charectars made for an interesting watch.
A fleeting moment when Parshwanath turned to the audience and egged the few spontaneous clappers to join in was magical. it was a string of moments like these, where the rasa built up in the audience and the bhava on the stage matched and resonated that made this production spectacular.
I only wished i could understand the Kannada lyrics, for it could have greatly enriched the experience of the production.
Congratulations to team Kalavahini for a great show this year.
images except where mentioned accessed from Kalavahini's insta page
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